So
associations like the co-operative stores, which aim at the elimination
of the element of profit in distribution, should be approved of by the
farmers.
Now we come to the townsman again. Is it his interest to support the
farmers in his own country or to regard the world as his farm? The
argument on the economic side is not so clear, but it is, I think, just
as sound. If agriculture is neglected in any country the rural
population pour into the towns. The country becomes a fountain of
blackleg labor. Rural labor has no traditions of trade unionism, and
takes any work at any price. There are fewer people engaged in
producing food, and its cost rises. Food must be imported from abroad;
and there is national insecurity, as in times of war their is always the
danger of the trade routes overseas being blocked by an enemy, and this
again has to be provided against by heavy expenditure for militarist
purposes. The farther away an army is from its base the more insecure
is its position, and the same thing is true in the industrial life of
nations.
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